A highly unusual and, in its way, stimulating book, though rather a hybrid: the author is a qualified geographer and archaeologist, as well as a former lecturer in the history of art. Perhaps there is a whiff - or more than a whiff - of New Age religiosity, but there is also much groundwork and genuine research, though one can hardly call the book "scholarly" in the usual, academic sense. Michael Dames tramped all over Ireland, visiting pagan and Christian sites, mulling over texts of all kinds down to modern literature, coming to terms with the genius loci of many places, the local legends and the local lore. Perhaps such a book is overdue, now that the old concept of "Celtic spirituality" has been so derided that it virtually hides its head. Lough Derg is an important theme, so is St. Patrick, the Bel Fire, the Celtic Underworld and the Celtic idea of an afterlife. As you might expect, there is a good deal about sun gods, sun alignments, and the solar goddess. The great sites are all visited, and so are many relatively unfamiliar ones. The work is lavishly illustrated, though some of the photographs are rather cramped and undistinguished; there are also many drawings and diagrams.